Core i7 3820 processor review -
Sandy Bridge-E

Sandy Bridge-E

Sandy Bridge-E, it's the all new 'enhanced' slash 'enthusiast' version of what pretty much is the Sandy Bridge (Core i7 2600K) architecture, yet with some new features added and some others stripped away.

Simply put, you take all the good ingredients from Sandy Bridge, preferably add two more cores, a slightly increased L3 cache and add a pinch of quad-channel memory. There is one exception to the rule, one Core i7 Sandy Bridge-E CPU that will remain a quad-core processor, the 3820 as tested today.

There's also something else missing, though we doubt a little that you'd miss it in this enthusiast grade segment. A change in the architecture is that Sandy Bridge-E doesnt have an on-die graphics processor built into the architecture. So if you are dependant on QuickSync as a feature then please stick to a 1st generation Sandy Bridge 2300/2400/2500/2600/2700 series processor.

Now we MUST mention that the Intels Core i7-3820 CPU is based on the Sandy Bridge-E die that packs only 1.27 billion transistors, compared to the 2.27 billion transistors found in Intels six-core parts. Together with the reduction in transistor count, the chip also has a smaller die that measures 294 square millimeters, making it roughly two thirds the size of the Core i7-3960X and i7-3930K (these chips measure 435mm2).

Intel has a lot of flexibility in their hands alright. In this first wave Intel released three Sandy Bridge-E class processors, namely the Core i7-3960X, the Core i7-3930K, and the Core i7-3820. Each will have different clock frequencies and a slightly changed L3 cache.

Again, the Core i7-3820 is a quad core processor, the other two are six-core processors.

Below, an overview of the main specs.

Processor

Base Clock

Max. Turbo Clock

Cores / Threads

L1 Cache

L2 Cache

L3 Cache

Memory

Interface

TDP

Core i7-3960X

3.3 GHz

3.9 GHz

6/12

64KB x6

256KB x6

15 MB

Quad-channelDDR3-1600

LGA 2011

130 W

Core i7-3930K

3.2 GHz

3.8 GHz

6/12

64KB x6

256KB x6

12 MB

Quad-channelDDR3-1600

LGA 2011

130 W

Core i7-3820

3.6 GHz

3.8 GHz

4/8

64KB x4

256KB x4

10 MB

Quad-channelDDR3-1600

LGA 2011

130 W

Core i7-2600K

3.4 GHz

3.8 GHz

4/8

64KB x4

256KB x4

8 MB

Dual-channelDDR3-1333

LGA 1155

95 W

What's interesting from a naming point of view is that Intel chooses three different suffixes for the processors, we have an X model, a K model and a 'normal' model. A little confusing, but it does make some sense:

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